Quote:
Originally Posted by Zen653
He hit .375 in the 1919 World Series with a homerun, two doubles and 6 RBI. These numbers were actually superior to his performance in the 1917 World Series - which the White Sox won, as you know - when he hit .304 with no extra base hits and no RBI. If he truly wanted to lose the World Series, he sure didn't play like it.
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It wasn't necessary that Jackson not play well during the series, nor is it any sort of fact that at anytime he wasn't playing his best. It is possible that he held back in critical moments and gave it the full effort when it wasn't going to alter the outcome of the game. For example, his one homerun was hit in the final game of the Series and the game was already a lost cause at that point.
Part of the confusion regarding performance stems from the fact that this was not a well organized and smooth running conspiracy. The bought off players all agreed that they had to throw the Series, but there was never a master plan regarding how it was to be done, nor which games would be lost and which games would be won. It was all improvised as it went along with the majority of the conspirators content to let Cicotte and Williams carry the burden of insuring a loss.
No one but Joe Jackson knows with certainty exactly what he did and did not do in that 1919 Series or how much real effort he was making and at what points he might have been letting up.
However, regardless of his performance, there is no doubt whatsoever that Jackson was in on the fix and accepted money for being part of it. There is no doubt that Jackson could have reported the scheme to management before the Series began, and he elected not to do so. There is no doubt that Jackson was completely aware of the crooked nature of the Series and that he was being paid to be a part of it.